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LEXINGTON — What began as a prank involving teenagers throwing a lighted pumpkin onto a bale of straw in the Coleman family’s Halloween decorations in 2008 ended up with the 60-something couple losing their dream home.

The straw caught fire about

2 a.m. the morning after Halloween and engulfed a wall of the two-story stucco home, quickly spreading into the rafters while the couple slept.

Kenneth Coleman , who had fallen asleep on a living room couch, woke up and got his wife Mary , who is asthmatic, out of their bedroom.

“We could have had a double homicide very easy,” said Greg Brown , a Davidson County assistant district attorney who worked out a plea arrangement with the couple’s blessing that essentially gave the teens a chance to avoid serious prison time.

“All I can say is that the Colemans were special people and they understood the totality of the situation, and those are decisions they made because of the goodness of their hearts,” Brown said. “Another family might not have had those thoughts.”

* * *

The granite counters aren’t finished, and empty spaces waiting for appliances are covered with tape. The new tile arrived at different times at home improvement stores, but the contractor has promised it will be laid by this weekend .

“We had considered walking away,” Coleman said of the decision whether to rebuild on the property .

It had been a typical Halloween on Second Avenue , with the Colemans on their huge front porch, passing out candy . The yard’s decorations included pumpkins and pine straw .

“Little princesses were running up and down the street — and, oh, some of the cutest babies,” Mary Coleman, a hairdresser, recalled.

It was also Mary Coleman’s birthday, and each year, after the candy had been passed out, the grandchildren would come over for cake, pass out from being so tired and spend the night. This year, “Granny,” a family friend, was to also be there with a toddler nephew.

But after daughter Anna called, telling them the children were already exhausted and asking if her mom would be hurt if the celebration could hold for a day, Mary Coleman went to bed and Kenneth Coleman, a licensed contractor, fell asleep on the couch watching a football game.

As they slept, unknown mischief reigned in their otherwise quiet historic neighborhood. A trail of pumpkins, taken out of the yards of their neighbors, ended up smashed in the streets. At some point, someone torched the bale of straw in their yard, with the spark eventually following the path of nearby pine needles and leaves toward the house.

“I don’t think anyone set out thinking, 'I’m going to burn down a house with people in it,’” Mary Coleman said of the perpetrators. “Maybe they were headed home and it was the last thing to do. The last prank to pull.”

About 2 a.m. , however, Kenneth Coleman awakened to the crackle of burning wood and yelled for his wife. Windows blew out from the heat as Mary Coleman made her way out of their first-floor bedroom .

Kenneth Coleman ran barefoot to a neighbor’s house to call 911 .

Hours later, after the fire trucks pulled away, what remained was a shell of the home that nearly a decade ago Coleman had taken a year off work to build with two friends, right down to the walnut floors. It was filled with Mary Coleman’s “finds,” accumulated over four decades, that included antique pieces and handmade furniture.

“Basically we lost everything,” Mary Coleman said. “The things you assume you are going to pass on to your grandchildren are gone, and then you realize they’re only things.”

* * *

Someone called the Lexington-area Crime Stoppers almost right away, tipping law enforcement that two teenagers were involved. Cameron Joseph Warner , then 18, and Christian Charles Everhart, then 17 , both of Lexington, were arrested within 48 hours and charged with felony arson.

“I don’t even know if the young men knew that the hay bale was lit when they left,” police Lt. John Hicks said. “It may have smoldered. But this mistake will follow them the rest of their lives.”

By the time the trial was to start, the Colemans had gone through a range of emotions, from sadness to anger, and forgiveness at the estimated $500,000 loss.

“You see them being led out and you realize they are just kids who did something stupid and horrible,” said Kenneth Coleman, who went to court with daughter Anna Hayes and her husband, Jason, whom he asked to speak for him.

Kenneth Coleman still gets teary-eyed when he thinks of what could have happened that night.

“It took me a long time to get over that mental picture, because if Granny and the kids had been upstairs, we would have never left them,” Kenneth Coleman said of that part of the house already engulfed in smoke and flames when he awoke.

The Colemans didn’t want revenge, although they thought the legal system needed to take its course.

“ We also wanted to make sure that somehow this had the potential to change the course of their lives,” Hayes said.

It probably would have been easier to be bitter, Mary Coleman said.

“But who wants to carry that around?” she said.

“You can hear stuff and hear stuff in church, and it’s always right about forgiveness,” her husband added. “But there comes a point in time when you face stuff and you have to decide whether you are going to put it to practice.”

The teens were placed on probation for three years and ordered to perform 100 hours of community service and make restitution, which was the deductible on the insurance.

Now, during this season of thankfulness, the Colemans are celebrating all the good things that have happened since the fire, in a two-story brick home with a similar floor pattern and a big porch for family dinners.

They have lots of stories of generosity and hugs, including the neighbor who had just renovated a house down the street and took it off the market so the Colemans could live nearby while the house was being rebuilt and the contractor who has carried out the project as if he is rebuilding his own home.

The conversation brings up strangers, Mary Coleman’s customers, the police, fire and DA’s office, and the neighbors who made them want to stay in the neighborhood .

“They try every day to look for something good in all of this,” Hayes said. “They are committed to that approach. That’s why it didn’t break them.”

So, the Colemans are preparing for the many upcoming holiday opportunities to be with family and friends.

“We just feel really blessed to be here,” Kenneth Coleman said.

Contact Nancy McLaughlin at 373-7049 or nancy.mclaughlin@news-record.com